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QCD@Work 2003 International Workshop on Quantum Chromodynamics Theory and Experiment Conversano (Bari, Italy) June 14-18 2003. Inhomogeneous color superconductivity. Roberto Casalbuoni.
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QCD@Work 2003 International Workshop on Quantum Chromodynamics Theory and Experiment Conversano (Bari, Italy) June 14-18 2003 Inhomogeneous color superconductivity Roberto Casalbuoni Department of Physics and INFN – Florence & CERN TH Division - Geneva
Literature Summary • Introduction to color superconductivity • Effective theory of CS • Gap equation • The anisotropic phase (LOFF): phase diagram and crystalline structure • Phonons • LOFF phase in compact stellar objects • Outlook
Reviews of color superconductivity: • T. Schaefer, hep-ph/0304281 • K. Rajagopal and F. Wilczek, hep-ph/0011333 • G. Nardulli, hep-ph/0202037 • Original LOFF papers: • A.J. Larkin and Y. N. Ovchinnikov, Zh. Exsp. Teor. Fiz. 47 (1964) 1136 • P. Fulde and R.A. Ferrel, Phys. Rev. 135 (1964) A550 • Review of the LOFF phase: • R. Casalbuoni and G. Nardulli, hep-ph/0305069
Introduction Study of CS back to 1977 (Barrois 1977, Frautschi 1978, Bailin and Love 1984) based on Cooper instability: At T ~ 0 a degenerate fermion gas is unstable Any weak attractive interaction leads to Cooper pair formation • Hard for electrons (Coulomb vs. phonons) • Easy in QCD for di-quark formation (attractive channel )
CS can be treated perturbatively for large m due to asymptotic freedom • At high m, ms, md, mu ~ 0, 3 colors and 3 flavors Possible pairings: • Antisymmetry in color (a, b) for attraction • Antisymmetry in spin (a,b) for better use of the Fermi surface • Antisymmetry in flavor (i, j) for Pauli principle
Only possible pairings LL and RR Favorite stateCFL(color-flavor locking) (Alford, Rajagopal & Wilczek 1999) Symmetry breaking pattern
What happens going down with m? If m << ms we get 3 colors and 2 flavors (2SC) In this situation strange quark decouples. But what happens in the intermediate region of m? The interesting region is for (see later) m ~ ms2/D Possible new anisotropic phase of QCD
(cutoff) (gap) Relevant scales in CS Fermi momentum defined by The cutoff is of order wD in superconductivity and > LQCD in QCD
Hierarchies of effective lagrangians LQCD Microscopic description pF + d Quasi-particles (dressed fermions as electrons in metals). Decoupling of antiparticles (Hong 2000) LHDET p – pF >> D D << d << pF pF + D Decoupling of gapped quasi-particles. Only light modes as Goldstones, etc. (R.C. & Gatto; Hong, Rho & Zahed 1999) LGold D p – pF << D pF
Physics near the Fermi surface Relevant terms in the effective description(see:Polchinski, TASI 1992, also Hong 2000; Beane, Bedaque & Savage 2000, also R.C., Gatto & Nardulli 2001) Marginal term in the effective description and attractive interaction
The marginal term becomes relevant at 1 – loop BCS instability solved by condensation and formation of Cooper pairs Sres is neglected in the mean field approximation
The first term in SM behaves as a Majorana mass term and it is convenient to work in theNambu-Gorkovbasis: Near the Fermi surface
Dispersion relation At fixed vF onlyenergy and momentum along vFare relevant v1 v2 Infinite copies of 2-d physics
For TT0 At weak coupling density of states
With G fixed by cSB at T = 0, requiring Mconst ~ 400 MeV and for typical values of m ~ 400 – 500 MeV one gets For m ~ 400 MeV one finds again Evaluationd from QCD first principles at asymptotic m(Son 1999) Notice the behavior exp(-c/g) and not exp(-c/g2) as one would expect from four-fermi interaction
The anisotropic phase (LOFF) • In many different situations pairing may happen between fermions belonging to Fermi surfaces with different radius, for instance: • Quarks with different masses • Requiring electric neutrality
Consider 2 fermions with m1 = M, m2 = 0 at the same chemical potential m. The Fermi momenta are To form a BCS condensate one needs common momenta of the pair pFcomm Grand potential at T = 0 for a single fermion
Pairing energy Pairing possible if The problem may be simulated using massless fermions with different chemical potentials (Alford, Bowers & Rajagopal 2000) Analogous problem studied by Larkin & Ovchinnikov, Fulde & Ferrel 1964. Proposal of a new way of pairing. LOFF phase
pF2 = m pFc = m – M2/4m pF1 = m – M2/2m E1(pFc)= m+M2/4m EF1=EF2 =m E2(pFc) = m-M2/4m
LOFF: ferromagnetic alloy with paramagnetic impurities. • The impurities produce a constant exchange field acting upon the electron spins giving rise to an effective difference in the chemical potentials of the opposite spins. • Very difficult experimentally but claims of observations in heavy fermion superconductors(Gloos & al 1993) and in quasi-two dimensional layered organic superconductors (Nam & al. 1999, Manalo & Klein 2000)
or paramagnetic impurities (dm ~ H) give rise to an energy additive term Gap equation Solution as for BCS D = DBCS, up to (for T = 0)
First order transition, since fordm > dm1,D = 0 (T = 0) • For dm = 0, usual BCSsecond order transition at T= 0.5669 DBCS • Existence of atricritical point in the plane (dm, T)
According LOFF possible condensation with non zero total momentum of the pair More generally fixed variationally chosen spontaneously
blocking region Simple plane wave:energy shift Gap equation: For T T0
The blocking region reduces the gap: Possibility of a crystalline structure (Larkin & Ovchinnikov 1964, Bowers & Rajagopal 2002) see later The qi’s define the crystal pointing at its vertices. The LOFF phase is studied via a Ginzburg-Landau expansion of the grand potential
(for regular crystalline structures all the Dq are equal) The coefficients can be determined microscopically for the different structures.
Gap equation • Propagator expansion • Insert in the gap equation
We get the equation Which is the same as with The first coefficient has universal structure, independent on the crystal. From its analysis one draws the following results
Small window. Opens up in QCD? (Leibovich, Rajagopal & Shuster 2001; Giannakis, Liu & Ren 2002)
Results of Leibovich, Rajagopal & Shuster (2001) Corrections for non weak coupling
Normal LOFF weak coupling strong coupling BCS
Along the critical line Single plane wave Critical line from
Preferred structure: face-centered cube
Tricritical point General study by Combescot and Mora (2002). Favored structure2 antipodal vectors • At T = 0 the antipodal vector leads to a second order phase transition. Another tricritical point ? (Matsuo et al. 1998) • Change of crystalline structure from tricritical to zero temperature?
Two-dimensional case (Shimahara 1998) Analysis close to the critical line
Phonons In the LOFF phase translations and rotations are broken phonons Phonon field through the phase of the condensate (R.C., Gatto, Mannarelli & Nardulli 2002): introducing
+ Coupling phonons to fermions (quasi-particles) trough the gap term It is possible to evaluate the parameters of Lphonon (R.C., Gatto, Mannarelli & Nardulli 2002)
F(i)(x) transforms under the group Oh of the cube. Its e.v. ~ xi breaks O(3)xOh ~Ohdiag. Therefore we get Coupling phonons to fermions (quasi-particles) trough the gap term
This because the second order invariant for the cube and for the rotation group are the same! we get for the coefficients One can evaluate the effective lagrangian for the gluons in tha anisotropic medium. For the cube one finds Isotropic propagation
LOFF phase in CSO Why the interest in the LOFF phase in QCD?
In neutron stars CS can be studied at T = 0 For LOFF state fromdpF ~ 0.75 DBCS Orders of magnitude from a crude model: 3 free quarks
Weak equilibrium: Electric neutrality:
rn.m.is the saturation nuclear density ~ .15x1015 g/cm • At the core of the neutron star rB ~ 1015 g/cm Choosing m ~ 400 MeV Right ballpark (14 - 70 MeV)
Glitches: discontinuity in the period of the pulsars. • Standard explanation: metallic crust + neutron superfluide inside • LOFF region inside the star providing the crystalline structure + superfluid CFL phase
Outlook • Theoretical problems: Is the cube the optimal structure at T=0? Which is the size of the LOFF window? • Phenomenological problems: Better discussion of the glitches (treatment of the vortex lines) • New possibilities: Recent achieving ofdegenerate ultracold Fermi gasesopens up new fascinating possibilities of reaching the onset of Cooper pairing of hyperfine doublets. However reaching equal populations is a big technical problem(Combescot 2001). LOFF phase?